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Saturday, 20 January 2018

Mourinho: Luke is one of the best

Jose Mourinho feels there are few better left-backs around at the moment than Luke Shaw and he believes the Manchester United defender has made great strides forward in recent weeks.

The 22-year-old has been a consistent performer of late, starting the Reds’ last five matches and featuring in eight of the last 11 games in all competitions.

Ashley Young is available for Saturday’s Premier League trip to Burnley after serving a three-game suspension and the boss faces a tough decision over who to play in the position at Turf Moor as he feels the in-form Shaw has played “very well” during his string of starts.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference at the Aon Training Complex on Friday, Mourinho said of Shaw: “Luke [has done] very well. He was already improving and playing well when I started playing him after that long spell without minutes.

“I remember the first time he played [in the] Champions League [against CSKA Moscow] he was coming step by step and now, with a good run of matches and also with continuity and playing like he did, for example against Everton [on New Year's Day] two days after a previous match [against Southampton].

“[He was] good, solid, physically much better, mentally much stronger, tactically understanding much better the game and what we need from him in the different phases and circumstances. I'm really happy. You like the transfer market and I can say in this moment, I don’t see many left-backs better than Luke Shaw.”